Portland State Magazine Winter 2010

TGI Thursday Challenging mindsets SOMETI M ES the students in Corne! Pewewardy's classes respond to a question with silence. "That's when I'm going to point somebody our," he says with a smile. "They know it's coming. They're thinking, 'oh, no-don't pick me. Bur I do." For Pewewardy, director of PSU's Native American Studies program, encouragement is che key to a productive learning environment that leads to student success. The National Indian Education Association recognized his dedication when it honored Pewewardy with its Teacher of the Year award at the association's 40th annual convention in October. Pewewardy, who is Comanche and Kiowa, says he had very few outstand– ing teachers when he was growing up. "I learned from bad teachers how not to be," he says. After graduate studies in elementary education at Universiry of Kansas, Pewewardy honed his teaching skills at che Comanche Nation College in Lawton, Oklahoma, and at Universiry of Kansas. Pewewardy tries to challenge his students to de-colonize their mindsets and introduces chem to indigenous ways of knowing as he reaches courses that cover che history oflndian education, Federal Indian law, and issues of sovereignry, identiry, and stereorypes. "Columbus didn't discover me," he may tell them, or he may recast Thanksgiving as "Thanks-taking." It's all done with che aim of encouraging critical thinking and student engagement. CLOSING ON FRIDAYS : Will it work for employees? Will it work for che communiry? Clackamas Counry government officials turned to professor Masami Nishishiba for answers. ees, and interviewed Clackamas Counry job applicants and ordinary citizens. The team found chat most employees liked the change, as did job applicants. Only 19 percent of counry citizens surveyed found the change inconvenient. In November 2008 the counry launched a one-year experi– ment that required some of its employees to work 10-hour days, raking Fridays off. Similar four-day workweek programs are in place around the country, most notably in the entire state government of Utah. Nishishiba, who specializes in the study of local governments, was asked to evaluate che pilot pro– gram, which involved about 828 of che counry's 1,800 workers. Nishishiba and four master's students in che Hatfield School of Government conducted focus groups, surveyed employ- 4 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE W INTER 20 10 The county initially tried che shortened workweek to save money on energy and fuel costs bur found the program also resulted in significant savings in overtime and comp time costs, with a total net savings of $456,000 during the year. The Clackamas Counry Board of Commissioners has decided to continue the program indefinitely, and Nishishiba has submit– ted a grant proposal to study similar programs elsewhere.